New homes in Wales require fire sprinklers

All new homes in Wales will have to be fitted with automatic fire sprinklers after a new law was finally passed by the National Assembly this week, three-and-a-half years after being introduced by Labour AM Ann Jones.

Ms Jones believes that the sprinkler would help save lives and ensure many fires were put out before firefighters needed to enter a burning building.

Click here to watch Ms Jones, along with fellow AM Eleanor Burnham, show BBC Wales am.pm programme how the sprinklers would work.

Ms Jones, who worked in the fire service for over 20 years before becoming an AM, was delighted that the vote was passed unanimously after winning cross party support.

She told the press: "Wales has just become the first country in the world to pass a law making sprinklers mandatory in all new homes.

"This is a narrow piece of legislation but the implications are huge. As the Welsh housing stock is grown and replaced, each and every person in those new homes will be better protected from fire than ever before.

"The number of lives lost to fire in the home does not represent a stubborn minimum and I am proud that Wales is taking action to put out the fires that cause avoidable deaths.

"Not many of the votes we pass here save lives - that one did."

Some new home developers had opposed the proposal to fit all new homes in Wales with automatic fire sprinklers.

The law will apply to all new homes in Wales - new houses and new apartments - as new care homes and university halls of residence.